Nathan Opposition of Ancient VVisdom And Satan

Ancient VVisdom is not so ancient; the band has only been around since 2009. But in that time, the Austin, Texas, based band has grown to be well-known in the realm of metal. Ancient VVisdom doesn't rely on intense growls and extremely fast guitar playing to scare the devil into listeners; they have rather soothing music and play acoustic guitars. But they do invoke his unholiness and hail him a good bit. I got a chance to talk to mainman Nathan Opposition about their devilish lyrical material, a new album in the works, and what Satanism is to him.

Buick McKane: How are you doing?

Nathan Opposition: I’m doing fantastic.

Buick: Great. You rereleased “A Godlike Inferno” last month, and that originally came out last year. Do you have any plans for a new album yet?

Nathan: Yeah, we just got into the studio and we just recorded twelve tracks for a new album. And that’s going to be on Prosthetic Records. It’s going to be out sometime in the fall this year.

Buick: Cool. Can you tell me more about it?

Nathan: We have some stuff in the works. We’re talking to an artist right now who’s done some really great band’s covers. He does really cool paintings; he’s really versatile, ha can do lots of different styles and we’re talking with him right now about our concepts. The theme of the record is an open interpretation; choosing your path to life or death. That’s sort of the idea. We have a lot of new percussion sounds and we have a lot of interesting layers on this one, lot more vocals. This is the next level for Ancient VVisdom.

Buick: Great, I can’t wait to hear it. Your first release that you got popular with was, of course, a split with Charles Manson. How were you able to get his music for the album?

Nathan: Oh, we talked to a couple of his friends, obviously on the outside, and they had some recordings that they were giving to release on Holy Terror Records. I asked to have a correspondence with them and see if they wanted to do it as a split with us. And at the time, they had no idea what Ancient VVisdom was; they weren’t sure if the band was covering their songs…So we played it for them, and they said, “Oh that sounds like a cool idea.” We played them our tracks and they were like, “Oh I think that can work out.” We got the tracks and did the record. It was sort of a rare opportunity for us, and it worked out.

Buick: A lot of people that believe in Satanism and Occultism really like your music because of that and your Satanic content. There’s a lot of bands out there who use Satanism as a metaphore and some that truly believe in a physical Satan. So how do you use Satanism?

Nathan: I believe it’s all what you make of it and the reality that you create. If you want to think that it’s something that can be embodied in a physical form, then you believe it, so it is. People create delusions about everything. My version of it is nothing more than my life and what I do, and everything else is what other people do. What they do…it doesn’t really matter to me too much. That’s my take on it. To get anything else [from it] is to live in a fantasy world with delusions and trying to convince yourself of things or displace your anger. I mean, there’s a level of fun to it, and I get that, but for me, personally, that’s just the fun behind it. Maybe these kids are too easily influenced. They have these opportunities to choose either being enlightened and influenced by lots of different concepts or take the path that will lead them to self-destruction. Which is exactly the opposite of what it is to me. It’s sort of interesting, the concept. Choose your own destiny. Turn to page 16 and you fall off into the abyss.

Buick: Your band also uses a lot of acoustic guitars. How do people react to them at metal shows?

Nathan: We usually get people who love us and people who hate us. We’re not really metal.

Buick: But metalheads seem to love y’all, right?

Nathan: Yeah, there’s a metal following. Metalheads appreciate us. I think people see the influence of some metal bands in our music, then they hear the acoustic and get taken to a different place; which is cool because it’s cool to listen to something different. We definitely have people who absolutely love the band. There’s some people who hate us.

Buick: Is there anything else you would like to say?

Nathan: Just that our next album is our debut on Prosthetic, and it’s going to be a fucking big one.

Emily is an avid supporter of the New Orleans scene, often filming shows and conducting interviews with local bands to help promote their music. She also runs her own site dedicated to the New Orleans scene, Crescent City Chaos.